From Super Technirama 70 to Ultra Panavision to Dimension 150 and more, the 70mm large-screen format promised - and delivered - a Barnum-esque world of spectacular sights and 6-track sounds. If the movies were always larger-than-life, then 70mm movies were much much larger, and from 1955 to 1970, there were nearly 60 major studio features shot in large format. Among the most heralded of these was 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; a newly struck 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic screens at the Aero this month in an exclusive engagement.

Whether in response to fond childhood memories of widescreen epics or realization of the possibilities of the medium, a new generation of filmmakers has picked up the torch of 70mm. Paul Thomas Anderson (THE MASTER, INHERENT VICE), Quentin Tarantino (THE HATEFUL EIGHT) and Christopher Nolan (INTERSTELLAR) have always been among celluloid’s most vocal advocates, and their latest films underline the enduring appeal of stunning, larger-than-life imagery. Experience 70mm as it was meant to be seen: on a big, beautiful screen, with booming, multichannel sound!

Writer Jim Hemphill has more to say about the renewed popularity of 70mm here.